Extraction controller for coal mining

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to an extraction controller for coal mining comprising a central control unit above ground and a longwall face control unit at the end of the face for controlling the extraction functions of the extraction units, i.e. robbing, advancing and jigging. The longwall face control unit is equipped with a display, which is controlled by a program that is stored on a hard drive. The face control unit comprises additional read-only memory modules as program memories for storing the required function programs.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a Continuation of International ApplicationNo. PCT/DE2006/000490, filed Mar. 17, 2006, and which designates theU.S. The disclosure of the referenced application is incorporated hereinby reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention concerns an extraction control unit configured to controlextraction units for mining in the longwall face of a mine.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

An extraction control unit is known, for example, from DE 100 18 481 01(9905). In the case of an extraction control unit of this type thelongwall face control unit also serves, in addition to the centralcontrol unit, the purpose of controlling the mining and extractingdevices by hand and controlling the fed in control commands and/oractual state.

An object of the invention is to facilitate such above ground manualoperation and manual control as well as the control of the positions andoperational statuses of the mining and extraction equipment, withoutimpairing by this the reliability and the service life of the longwallface control units, which are subjected to very unfavorableenvironmental effects.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This objective and others are achieved by an extraction control unitthat renders it possible to equip both the central control unit and thelongwall face control unit with a display screen and also to makeeverything visible on the longwall face control unit what is visible onthe central control unit. By virtue of this the communication betweenthe operator on the central control unit and the operator in thelongwall face is facilitated. Having a plurality of functions andstatuses of the mining machine (planer or cutter) and plurality ofextraction units (shields) a very extensive program is required for thisvisualization on the display screen, while said program has to becapable to allow a random and rapid access to the individual programs.For this reason a conventional fixed disk drive, like the onesuccessfully used in great numbers of commercially available PCs, thatenables the storage of a very large amount of data. With this theproblem of storage of programs necessary for extraction and mining issolved, since fixed disks are available with the largest storagecapacity.

The invention, however, refrains from the use of the fixed disk and forthe storage of programs required for the extraction and/or miningfunctions and their control and monitoring uses memory modules, based onsemiconductors, with digital data storage and optional access,preferably such which, after the program had been read in, do notchange, can be read only, i.e. ROMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, flash EEPROMs, forexample. Depending on the program and command structure chosen, thesememory modules are components of the computer units/processors of theshield control units, longwall face control units and the centralcontrol unit, which are joined for the purpose of data transfer, inparticular of control commands and status reports, preferably in series,via a busbar and can be called up or triggered. In contrast to this thedisplay screen of the longwall face control units has its own computerunit (display screen processor), that has a fixed disk with a drive andreading device to store the picture program and serves the purpose ofdisplay screen control, so that to make the working processes, functionsand statuses visible on the display screen.

This configuration has the disadvantage, that in the case of failure ofthe fixed disk memory the display of functions, commands and statuses onthe display screen also fails, yet the longwall face control unitremains functional and therefore the mining of the coal can continue,while the display of functions, commands and statuses on the displayscreen of the central control unit remains as was the case previously.Although the computer units/processors necessary for the control of themining and extraction are also connected to the computer unit servingthe control of the display screen (display screen processor), a failureof the fixed disk would not affect the functional performance of thecomputer units/processors of the shield control units, longwall facecontrol units and central control units responsible for the control ofthe mining and extraction functions because the memory modules servingthe purpose of storing the corresponding programs are not effected by afailure of the fixed disk.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The inventive method will be described in more detail hereinbelow withthe aid of an exemplary embodiment of the inventive apparatus, withreference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of an extraction control unitaccording to one exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The drawing schematically illustrates the extraction control unitaccording to the invention. The reference numeral 1 designates the aboveground central control unit, that also has a display screen 2. Thecentral control unit is connected via a busbar 3 with a longwall facecontrol unit, preferably two longwall face control units 4 and 5, whichare situated underground at the end of the longwall faces. The computers6 of the longwall face control units (longwall face computers) areconnected with the shield control units 12 of the extraction units 11via the busbar 3 and the respective branch lines. In addition tolongwall face computers/processors each longwall face control unit 4 and5 has also a memory 7, that as fixed memory comprises digital memorymodules in a semiconductor manner, as defined, in which the functional,operational and control programs are stored, that are required by thelongwall face computer/process computer 6 to control the extractionfunctions. The fact, that each longwall face control unit 4,5, as wellas the central control unit 1, has a keyboard with which commands can beentered, is not illustrated. The longwall face control units 4, 5 arealso equipped with a display screen 8 each. For their display screencontrol a display screen processor 10 with fixed disk memory 9 isallocated to each longwall face control unit 4, 5. To receive data, eachdisplay screen processor 10 is connected with the longwall facecomputer/processor 6. The respective image control program is stored onthe fixed disk 9, that can be read by means of the fixed disk drive, asit is done in commercially available computers.

Since the functions of the extraction units is carried out via therespective longwall face control units 6 and shield control units 12 bythe respective keyboard of the longwall face control unit 4 or 5 viatheir longwall face computers/processors 6, without the necessity toaccess the fixed disk memory 9 to carry out the command input and thefunctions, the functional performance of the longwall face control units4 and 5 is independent from the function of the display screens 8 aswell as the display screen processors 10 allocated to them and theallocated fixed disk drive 9.

1. An extraction control unit for coal mining in the longwall face of amine configured to control a plurality of extraction units that areerected adjacent one another along the length of the longwall facebetween galleries, and to control a mining machine that can travel alongthe coal face, comprising: a central control unit located above ground;a longwall face control unit located at the end of the longwall face andconfigured to control the mining functions of the mining machine and theextraction functions of the extraction units in the sense of robbing,advancing and jigging; a plurality of shield control units, one of eachbeing locally and functionally allocated to an extraction unit andconfigured to transform and transmit extraction commands of the longwallface control unit; and a busbar connecting the longwall face controlunit and the shield control units, wherein the longwall face controlunit has a display screen configured to display the commands andfunctions to be controlled or the positional and functional statuses ofat least one of the extraction units of the mining machine, theextraction control unit, or other functional elements, wherein theprogram required for the display screen control is stored on a fixeddisk of a fixed disk memory drive situated in the longwall control unit,and wherein the longwall control unit is equipped with fixed memorymodules as program memory configured to store function programs and witha processor to process the programs and control the extraction andmining functions.
 2. An extraction control unit according to claim 1,wherein the busbar is configured to connect the longwall face controlunit and the shield control units in series.
 3. An extraction controlunit according to claim 1, wherein the fixed memory modules are readonly memory modules.
 4. An extraction control unit according to claim 3,wherein the read only memory modules are selected from the groupconsisting of ROMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, and flash EEPROMs.